Celsius: CEO Took the Reins Himself

Shortly before Celsius's bankruptcy, CEO Alex Mashinsky took the trading reins against the advice of his strategists.

Shortly before Celsius, the lending platform, filed for bankruptcy, CEO Alex Mashinsky took the trading reins against his strategists' advice.

Alex Mashinsky, Celsius's CEO, took over the company's investment activities shortly before the crypto firm's collapse. He overruled the advice of internal investment strategists.

This is according to a report in the Financial Times. The report says Mashinsky told his team in January that he would lead the investment activities from then on. The report also states that Mashinsky overruled his experienced investment strategists and personally ordered dubious trades.

Apparently the CEO wanted full oversight and control of trading strategies before key rate decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve, because he anticipated a sharp drop in crypto prices.

They reportedly did not follow the company's safety procedures.

A few months later Celsius was forced to file for bankruptcy due to the weak state of the crypto market.

The bankruptcy proceeding exposed mismanagement and high debt levels that had to be written up. The debt burden could now be somewhat lightened by Celsius itself. The bankruptcy court in New York has allowed the insolvent lender to sell bitcoin from its mining activities. However, it is not a particularly large amount.

From documents from the bankruptcy case on the company’s balance sheet, it appears to involve 348.84 BTC. That equates to about 8.4 million US dollars. In comparison to Celsius's current $2.85 billion debt, this is just a drop in the bucket.